Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

“hardwoods” is a form of

hardwood

/ˈhɑɹdˌwʊd/ noun, adjective

Forms hardwoods

  1. noun (countable, mostly in botany and forestry) The wood from any dicotyledonous tree, without regard to its hardness. “Balsa is a hardwood, but a soft hardwood.”
  2. noun (countable) (in more general use) As the preceding, but limited to those that are commercial timbers, and are at least average in hardness. “Ash, hickory and oak are some of the most prominent domestic hardwoods.”
  3. noun (countable, forestry) The tree or tree species that yields the preceding. “This hardwood has been planted extensively throughout the hills here.”
  4. noun (uncountable) A joint term for the commercial timbers, without distinguishing which. “You should have used hardwood for this window sill instead of this junk.”
  5. noun (sports, slang) The sport of basketball, in particular, an indoor basketball court; so named because the floor of an indoor basketball court is normally made of hardwood.
  6. adjective (of a floor) Made of interlocking hardwood boards.

Etymology

From hard + wood. The term refers to the seed coat of the tree's seeds; it does not refer to the degree of hardness of the tree's wood, but it seems to do so and is usually assumed to do so by speakers not well informed about trees and timber.

Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “hardwood”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details